


Red Triangle

by Duck_Life



Series: X-Men Shorties [10]
Category: Avengers (Comics), New Mutants
Genre: Character Study, Hypnotism, U.S. Avengers, U.S. Avengers #6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 07:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17700161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Sam's missing-presumed-dead and Dr. Faustus is launching a hypnotic attack on A.I.M.Roberto spirals.





	Red Triangle

Roberto da Costa has had some supremely terrible days in his life. Bad days so bad that “bad” is too small a word for them. There was the day Juliana died, there was the day he hurled his best friend into a tree and discovered that his mentor expected him to become a supervillain. There was the day Doug Ramsey died. There was the day he was diagnosed with M-Pox. 

Today? Today it’s like all those days happening at once. 

New York is under attack. The damn  _ planet _ is under attack. He’s being pulled in a thousand different directions and Captain America is looking at him like dirt on the bottom of his star-spangled boots and he feels like he’s rapidly losing any control he had of the situation. And then he hears Sam Guthrie’s voice over the comms.

And then he hears nothing. 

Carol Danvers tells him she’s looking, and then that she hasn’t seen him yet, and then that she  _ still _ hasn’t seen him. “You should prepare yourself,” she says, “he may not be coming ba—”

“End communication,” Roberto says abruptly, his voice breaking on the last syllable, because if Captain Carol Danvers sees him completely lose it there’s no coming back from that, no way to get any of the Avengers to take him seriously again, as a hero or as a leader. If he breaks down in front of Carol then he’s just some kid from Xavier’s. 

Bobby, from Brazil. 

The room is stifling, and he’s about ready to start pulling his hair out. “My best friend is dead,” he barks out, harshly, like if he says it out loud it won’t hurt, like if he says it out loud it won’t feel like a sucker-punch to the soul. 

Suddenly he’s standing on a soccer field and watching Sam Guthrie sail headlong into a tree trunk because he lost his temper and—

Suddenly he’s standing on a soccer field and he’s burning up, like fire, his own teammates are sprinting away from—

Suddenly he’s standing on a soccer field and Keller’s fist is slamming into his face, he’s being driven into the dirt because of the color of—

Dr. Faustus’ vile face fills the screen.

Breathe. Focus. Remember Professor Xavier’s lessons. 

Roberto centers himself and tries to remember, tries to keep from falling victim to the hypnotist’s induction. What was… ? Red triangle. Red triangle, right. 

Red triangle.

Red triangle.

Sam is dead.

Red triangle.

Sam is dead. Sam is dead and he could have—

Red triangle.

Sam is dead and if Roberto didn’t need him here on Earth Sam wouldn’t have even been out there to get caught in the fight, he would have been far away from Earth’s orbit with his wife and child, and it’s all Roberto’s fault because everything always is, him and his stupid temper and his codependency, him and his big ideas, and it’s like it’s all too much to take anymore and it would honestly be so much easier to just forget about the stupid triangle and just listen.

“There is no need to fight… no need to be afraid…” It’d be nice. For once, it’d be nice to— “You no longer have to struggle,” the man on the screen says, and yeah, it’d be nice, it’d be so easy to—

Sam is dead.

Sam Guthrie is dead.

Red triangle. 

“Red triangle,” Roberto says, holding himself together with thread and spite. “ _ Red triangle _ . Red triangle! This is Citizen V to all units,” he begins, calling out to his people. To his team. 

It’s one of the most terrible days of his life, and he’s damn sure not about to let it be the last one. 


End file.
